Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-30
THE FIRE COMMISSIONERS.
THEY HOLD A LENGTHY AND
INTERESTING SESSION.
The Majority of the Board Refuse
to Approve the Minutes of the
Uptown Meetings.

through them, Mr.. OrlIIltts dsheu loi 'HoSe
of the preceding month.
Mr.. Slater replied They have been
acted upon, allowed and paid"
Mr.. Grifitts-Thats all right, Mr.. Sla-
ter. l want to have something TO say about
them, too.
After some further remarks about the
August bills, the Secretary was directed to
read the unapproyed minutes The min
utes of the hrst regular meetings with
slight alterations were approved. The
minutes of the two meetings held at John
Conran's rooms, at 1920 J street, were also
read, but not approved, the vote standing ::
Ave Slater, /; No, We'll and Gritfitts, ,.
Mr.. We'll stated that the Commission had
a room fitted up for the holding OF meet
ings, and those held elsewhere should not
be considered.
The minutes of the meeting held August
30th, when Messrs. Slater and Griffitts were
present, were objected to by the latter, who
said they contained many inaccuracies.
The Board refused to adopt them, the
vote standing-aye Slater, no Griffitts, Mr..
We'll asking to be excused from voting on
the ground that he was not present at the
meeting and could not pass upon the &C
curacy of the minutes.
Mr.. Slater offered the following resolu-
tons, which were unanimously adopted:
WHEREAS Since the last regular meeting of
this Board it has pleased Almighty God, in his
infinite wisdom, to remove from the Board one
of its members; and, whereas, in the death of
our late member, John Conran, the Fire Depart
ment of Sacramento has lost an esteemed and
able member of this Board, who through a long
and painful illness discharged his duties with
uprightness and fidelity. Therefore,
ReSolred, That this Board expresses its high
appreciation of the character of John Cohran,
both as private citizen and as public officer
and directs that the Secretary record these reso-
buttons in the minutes of the Board and send q
copy of the same to the family of the deceased,
with the sincere sympathy of the Board with
the N in their bereavement.
THE PAY ROLL AND MONTHLY BILLS.
then suggested that they take up the paw
roll and bills for the month of August.
Mr.. Slater-They have been acted upon
allowed and paid.
Mr.. Griffitts-Perhaps the payroll has
not been made out properly.
Mr.. Weil-Has it been made out by a
regular meeting Of the Board?
Mr.. Griffitts-No, sir. The first thing is
to make out the payroll for August, the
same as that made out on the Doth of July
Mr.. Weil-Has there been any changes
since then?
Mr. Griffitts-Not that we recognize.
The President then read the July pay
roll from the minutes, and the Secretary
took down for the August payroll. 1t rec
ognized Con. Sullivan Chief NJ. O'Meara
as Assistant Chief ignoring all the changes
made at the meeting held by Messrs. Con-
ran and Slater at their two meetings at 1920
J street. Mr.. Slater demanded the roll
call on each change, which invariably re-
suited in a vote of two to one The pay
roll for September was made q duplicate of
that of August, Mr.. Slater protesting the
same as before, claiming that the meetings
at Mr.. Conran's room were legal, and that
Sullivan was not Chief. His protests, how
ever, ayailed him nothing, as the vote of
two TO one was the result OF every roll call
Among the bills was one of $40 for board
ing Chief Sullivan's horse at the Dexter.
stables.
Mr.. Slater objected to this, saying that
the department had their own stables and
feed department, and bill of this kind
should not be allowed
Mr.. Griffitts stated that the Chief had
taken his horse to the stable referred to by
direction of the President of the Board.
Under the circumstances at that time sur
rounding the department he considered
this necessary, and should vote to pay the
bill. Mr.. We'll voted with him and the bill
was allowed.
1t was then directed that the horse stabbed
in the corporation house, and which Ma
O'Meara has been using, should be sent to
pasture, and that Chief Sullivan be directed
to remove his horse from the Dexter sta
bles to the corporation house
A bill of $50 for putting in an alarm box
at Twentieth and O streets, by Chief Sulli-
van, was objected to by Mr.. Slater, but was
allowed by vote of . to l.
The bill of $75 made out for Chief
O'Meara ;" for maintaining the fire-alarm
telegraph was laid over, the majority re-
fusing to consider it, claiming that they did
not recognize him as Chief, neither had the
telegraph alarm system ever been placed in
his charge at a regular meeting of the
Board.
Mr.. Slater favored allowing the bill, and
again asserted that Mr.. O'Maera was
Chief, and had been legally elected as such
Several communications were read from
parties who desired positions in the de-
partment, and were ordered placed on file
N. a. Howard, foreman of Engine Com
pany No. 2, rendered his resignation, to
take effect Immediately. The same was
accepted, and David Barnes, an extraman
of the same company, was promoted to fill
the vacancy. Philip Cook was elected ex-
traman, to fill the vacancy caused by the
promotion of David Barnes.
c. S. Butler rendered his resignation as
an extraman, which was accepted, and W
II. Jennings was elected to fill the vacancy.
Mr.. Wilders name, Foreman of Engine
No. l, was stricken from the roll at his own
request. II. a. Guthrie was promoted to
the position and N. NJ. Gallagher elected
extraman to fill the vacancy.
The monthly report of Hose Company
No. l was read and placed on file. The
other reports were addressed m.
O'Meara, Chief Engineer" and the Board,
by a to vote, refused to receive them
until they we're made out properly.
Mr.. We'll said the time for the annual
election of officers had gone by, and an
election could now be called at any time.
He thought it best to defer the election for
few days. He said some damaging
Chief Engineer, and he did not desire
to elect any one to office who
had such charges pending against him.
Mr.. Slater then began TO read some damag-
| ing statements in the Eucliag Bee, when be
was interrupted by Mr.. Grifiitts, who OBJ
| jected to the reading of newspaper articles
in the Board. Mr. Slater replied, with
much warmth, that as a Commissioner he
| had a right to talk and express any opinion
IN open Board which he saw mt. Charges
had been made, he said, charging the Chief
with ENLIGHTENMENT, corruption, and God
| knows what all. While | am not here to
defend Chief Sullivan, desire to say it is
very easy TO blacken the character of any
man, but to prove it is quite another
thing. If these things are not true
| then it is wrong, climinally wrong
| to charge them. Let these people
who are busily engaged circulating these
| charges come before this Board with them
| We are the proper persons to consider
| them, and they shall have patient, full
! fair and impartial hearing, and if any por.
| ton of the charges they make is true, he
shall not hold position in this Depart
ment for one hour. If he is innocent, ht
| shall have the benefit of it. Let us post
| pone this election for several days, and give
! those parties an opportunity to come be
fore US armed with their proofs. Thi:
! thing of preferring damaging charge:
against a man on the eve OF an election
without substantiating proofs, needs care
! full investigation. Let US give them ampl,
time, say one week, and if they then do no
come before Us, we will proceed with the
election.
President Grifitts agreed with this sug
| gestion- He also moved that Chief Sulli
! van be directed to fill all vacancies tina
may occur before the next regular meeting
( of the Board, which was adopted by tn,
/ two-to-one vote.